Having recently installed ubuntu on my HTPC I was keen to get my Microsoft MCE Remote Control working. Initially this is easy to setup with LIRC but its a little trickier to get the buttons mapped the way you want. There is a lot of documentation on the web which doesnt seem to work.

According to the source this creates a .lirc directory and .lircrc file. However in my experience it created a txt file .lirc and no .lircrc. I removed the txt file .lirc and created a directory .lirc and txt file .lircrc in my home account

$ mkdir .lirc
$ touch .lircrc

3: Ensure the remote/receiver is now working, in a terminal window:

$ irw <return>

Now press some buttons on the remote such as “Home” and “Play” and you should see the button codes | names | mceusb